December is almost upon us, and as the newly elected Walks Coordinator it falls to me to organise this year’s Berkshire Walkers Winter Staycation, returning after last year’s was cancelled due to the winter lockdown.
The idea is to have a fairly full programme of walks and socials over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, for those who are staying around the area and looking for something to do. This year we’d like to have events on as many of the days as possible between Saturday 18th December and (Bank Holiday) Monday 3rd January.
All types of walk are welcome, but given the short days, winter conditions, and people’s other plans, most Staycation walks are usually on the shorter end of the range – 5 to 8 miles is probably ideal. Why not have a look at the 2018 and 2019 programmes for inspiration?
Given Christmas Day is a Saturday, I realise people will have quite variable amounts of the preceding week off work – I’m not expecting to fill every day, but if you’re off work and up for leading something I’m sure a few others will also be off and up for walking! I’m not expecting anyone to lead Christmas Day or Boxing Day though, unless anyone wants to prove me wrong…
In particular, it would be great to have walks on the weekend of the 18th/19th to kick off, and then on the last days of the year (27th–31st) and over the New Year Bank Holiday weekend (1st/2nd/3rd) which is likely to bring out a lot of new walkers – so it would be great to put on more than one walk those days (especially if leaders wish to limit numbers).
If you have a walk in mind that you’d like to put on during this period (even if it’s a repeat of a previous walk, or you haven’t recced it yet) please do get in touch with me and let me know which date(s) you could do and I’ll try and find a space in the programme for it!
We have two socials planned already for this period: a fancy dress pub crawl in Wokingham on the afternoon and evening of Saturday 18th, and an Oxford pub social on the evening of Thursday 30th. It would be great to have one or two more though – please contact Andrew (Social Secretary) if you’re interested in putting one on.
Of course, please get in touch too if you’d like to lead a walk at any other time as well, or have any questions about leading walks in general – I’m aiming to refresh our guidance for walk leaders in the coming weeks.
— Zak (Walks Coordinator)